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INTRODUCTION 

THE REASON THAT THIS SUBJECT IS 
BEING TREATED IN PAMPHLET FORM, IS 
THAT THE WRITER HAS BEEN UNABLE TO 
HAVE IT PUBLISHED BY A SCIENTIFIC 
JOURNAL. MANY LEADING NEWSPAPERS 
HAVE ALSO REFUSED THE COPY. THE 
WRITER PRESENTS THE SUBJECT MATTER 
WITH HIS COMPLIMENTS TO THOSE WHO 
HAVE COURAGE. 


SINCERELY, 

George Foster. 



NOV 21 1914 

©Gl. A3 90571 











Ee-JIaladzattmt of ttje lEartlf 

BY 

GEORGE FOSTER 


Many men of great scientific repute have de¬ 
voted their lives to the solution of the problem of 
the earth’s beginning; to the genesis of life, and 
to man’s evolution through the many steps that 
he has taken in his supremacy over the lower ani¬ 
mals, as well as over the forces of nature in his 
fight for existence. 

That man has made over the exterior of the 
earth is apparent to all; the tunnel through the 
mountains; the canal joining one ocean to another; 
great steamships that connect one continent with 
another; the railroad and a thousand other trans¬ 
forming influences attest the greatness of the 
genius of man, which extends to every depart¬ 
ment of his complex existence, even to his con¬ 
trol of the lower animals, since his control of their 
environment and habits has developed their effi¬ 
ciency in many instances to an almost incredible 
degree. In the field of Science, Art, Literature, 
Philosophy and History he seems almost a prodigy; 
in his research able to j/rest from Nature her 





most secrets, first one, and then another; the law 
of gravitation; that of the continuity of energy; 
the atom; the electric ione; the waves of the wire¬ 
less, or the vibrations of the sysmeograph; the al¬ 
most annihilation of both time and space, all yield 
to his research, and yet every step he has taken, 
every discovery he has made, have been resisted, 
in most instances by those who were conceded at 
that particular time to be the leaders of thought, 
those who had had large educational advantages 
and unstinted opportunities of research. 

Men with the courage of their convictions have 
been beheaded for believing that the earth re¬ 
volved on its axis, as they have been by the thou¬ 
sands for believing in, or not believing in, this 
or that deity who was supposed to be able to in¬ 
fluence their lives; some of them here, others both 
here and hereafter. So that in a multiude of ways, 
man’s efforts to really know have been opposed, 
frustrated or defeated, until he stands, in this re¬ 
spect, as his progenitor has so often stood in the 
past, reviewing his splendid achievements, only to 
fail at last; to know that time is an element in 
his development, and that in the end he will be 
crushed without consideration. 

The influences that have produced epochs in 
history are varied. Often it has been the rising 
of a man who has been hailed as a prophet when 
he gave a new valuation to old things, making a 
new ideal for the race to conjure with, or when 
a pioneer in the world of thought blazed a new 
path and compelled the attention of the world, 


4 


and thereby influenced the trend of evolution, that 
led humanity not always upward, but onward. 

Less often, but more marked, have been the 
epochs wrought by discoveries of the working of 
the universe; its formation; its vastness; the rec¬ 
ognition of rational instead of miraculous theories 
of the creation of the universe, as well as of the 
origin of man, have each had their part in the 
making of epochs. It has been well said that 
“Every epoch has its own religion.” 

When Laplace gave to the world the nebulae 
hypothesis of the beginning of the universe, he 
gave to man his first opportunity to be free from 
the dogma of creation as taught in the creeds of 
all the Christian religions; today man must choose 
between these two theories, and upon his choice 
must depend his standing in the world of intelli¬ 
gent thought. His theory gave man a place to 
begin to be rational; more than any other thing, 
it caused him to inquire and to doubt. That prog¬ 
ress in a new direction would consequently result, 
was a certainty, and that the brave would leave 
to the cowards of the race the old belief that the 
earth was called into existence in a miraculous, un¬ 
natural and inscrutable way, would be but a natu¬ 
ral sequence. 

Of all men, Darwin has placed us most deeply 
in his debt by giving us a sure hypothesis of the 
origin of our species, and through his discoveries 
and researches, man for the first time in a rational 
way was able to think of his normal genesis. 
Until then, he could hardly doubt his miraculous 


5 


creation or a miraculous conception. Nevertheless, 
Darwin, wfith all his experience and learning was 
always at a loss to determine the manner of the 
diffusion of man, animals and plant life over the 
surface of the earth, or to account for their being 
in places where the present environment was un¬ 
suited to their origin or existence. 

He advanced the theory that migratory fowls 
could have carried the seeds that by chance found 
fertile soil in which to take root, or that they 
were lodged in the bark or crevice of a tree that 
was uprooted and carried by the waters of a 
river or the ocean to a distant land, where the 
seed found, by chance, more or less favorable con¬ 
ditions for their growth, and that in the early 
history of the earth its surface was less uneven 
than now; its mountains less high, its valleys, in 
consequence not so depressed, its oceans not so 
deep or well defined, and that strips of land here 
and there extended from one continent to another, 
making the passage of animal kind, generally from 
one continent to another, comparatively easy. 

He was not satisfied with these deductions, yet 
was unable to do more than speculate upon this 
during his busy lifetime, the net result of which 
was to release from bondage and superstition all 
who were endowed with sufficient courage to look 
life in the face, and bear their own burden. 

The lamentable death of Captain Scott after 
having been successful in reaching the South Pole, 
only to find the flag of a rival expedition planted 
at the imaginary spot that had drawn them both 


6 


to the top of the earth, is all the more so because 
he declared that he had discovered the geological 
proofs of the fact that the place where the flag 
w r as planted, had twice been the equator of the 
earth, thus verifying the solution of the problem 
which has been a stumbling block in the way of 
many a scientist in his deduction, whereas, had 
they recognized this landmark, they would have 
progressed far toward the solution of the remain¬ 
ing riddles of the universe. 

The geologist, for love of research and the sat¬ 
isfaction and distinction that new discoveries ^give, 
has done much to unravel the mysteries of the 
crust of the earth, as well as that of the evolution 
of the race that dwells thereon. He has deter¬ 
mined that our earth has had distinct periods of ex¬ 
istence, and that civilization and art have perished 
with these periods, but that individuals of our 
race, as well as many of the species of animal 
kind, have in some hitherto unexplained manner 
survived them. 

The miner in his practical way has come to 
know that the riches of the mine that he exploits 
came from the interior of the earth when its crust 
was cracking by its convulsions, when it quaked 
in adjusting its hardened crust to the reduced 
volume of its constantly cooling and contracting 
interior mass, and that this also, caused the faults 
that he finds in the earth’s formation. Yet with 
this knowledge we but faintly realize the immen¬ 
sity of the proportions of the transforming and 
destructive disturbances of the earth. 


7 


From the nature of things, earthquakes are 
more violent than formerly when the crust of the 
earth was less thick and rigid. They in their vio¬ 
lence and destruction horrify us, and with appre¬ 
hension we dread their terrors and certain recur¬ 
rence ; but if, as the logic of the situation indicates, 
and as Captain Scott assures us, the poles were 
in earlier times the equator of the earth it must 
therefore have repolarized itself. That this is true, 
cannot be doubted in the face of the many irre¬ 
futable proofs, even though, through fear, we turn 
away from this conclusion because of its terrible 
consequences. It is impossible for the most lurid 
writer (other than the author of the Book of 
Revelations) to conjure the horrors of the scene. 
None can imagine the suffering, nor even the most 
optimistic believe that more than a handful of 
people could here and there survive the transition; 
neither can the faith of those who believe in the 
watchful care of a compassionate divinity with¬ 
stand the terror, destruction and desolation of this 
periodic and natural, though terribly inevitable 
happening. 

The untrained mind readily grasps the fact that 
there could not be that strong and dense vegetable 
growth in the frozen countries that is required to 
make a coal deposit; yet we know that many of 
the most extensive coal fields are in cold climates, 
even within the Arctic Circle. The mastodon, 
whose skeleton bones and tusks are found in great 
numbers in the frozen zones, could not have found 
herbage on which to exist except in a tropical cli- 


8 


mate where the vegetation grew luxuriously, and 
being herbivorous animals they could not have 
withstood the rigorous climate where their bones 
are found in profusion. 

Evidence is not required to prove that the 
earth, that we have known in times past as the 
world, has always obeyed the laws of cause and 
effect; that it is but a small part of a great and 
magnificent system, and that it runs its course in 
accordance with law. The question is—Does the 
earth in accordance with, and in obedience to that 
law, frequently repolarize itself? In an affirma¬ 
tive answer lies hidden the secret of many of the 
mysteries that have baffled us. 

This hypothesis accounts for the diffusion of 
plant life as well as that of the animal species—- 
or their remains—over the surface of the earth 
in a natural way, which was an unsolved mystery 
to Darwin, and the lack of which so nearly de¬ 
feated his epoch-making theory of the law of the 
“survival of the fittest .’’ 

It also accounts for the coal deposits in nor¬ 
thern countries, for the bones and skeletons of the 
mastodon in a climate where they could not have 
maintained life; of the heretofore mythological 
“Glacial Drift” of the scientist and the miner: of 
the “Ice Age”; of the remains of populous cities 
in the fever zones of Central America, where the 
deadly fever and gases resist even their explora¬ 
tion, and will even provide a plausible theory 
upon which to base the now believed mythological 
story of the lost Atlantis. It accounts for the er- 


9 


ratic changes in our climate which puzzles, con¬ 
fuses and confounds us, as when the poles dip, a 
different surface of the earth than before is ex¬ 
posed to or turned from the sun, as the earth 
passes around it in its orbit. 

To make all this clear let us recognize that the 
South Pole, unlike the North Pole, which is a 
moving sea, is a continent larger in extent than 
the whole of Europe, much of it having great alti¬ 
tude, and on this account it would retain the pre¬ 
cipitations of frost and snow, until the accumula¬ 
tion of snow and ice on this pole had gone on to 
such an extent, adding weight, that it would, in 
accordance with the law of rotation—which inert 
bodies must always obey—turn to the center of 
motion, or to the present equator, since it has 
thereby become the heavy part of the ball. It 
would, in its movement from South to West—as¬ 
suming that it went in that direction,—go far to 
the North of West, as a result of its momentum, 
oscillating back and forth until the earth again 
found its axis; however, all the time maintaining 
its present course in its cycle, and its rotational 
movement, as the law governing them will have 
in no way been affected. 

This theory at once disposes of further discus¬ 
sion as to how the deposits of the glacial drift 
were made. When the incalculable burden of the 
South Pole rushed to find its equilibrium, its mo¬ 
mentum carried it beyond this point, and as it 
would start to oscillate back toward its point of 
equilibrium, great mountains of ice, glaciers miles 


10 


in extent, would break off from the mass, and go 
on hundreds of miles, impelled by their momentum, 
tearing great channels across the earth, leaving 
detached portions of their under surface as they 
went, wdiich would mystify for a time their dis¬ 
coverers, when, after many ages, the race had 
once more fought its w T ay back to a position where 
scientific research had again so far progressed that 
man would note that they were alien, and inquire 
as to their place of origin, and the means of trans¬ 
portation to where they lie. It would be impos¬ 
sible to follow the course of the channel made by 
this vanished catapult unless its cause were first 
determined, since the character of its pathway 
would be continually altered both by its own com¬ 
position which would change as its under surface 
was ground away, as well as by the changing char¬ 
acter of the country that it traversed. He could 
but wonder, and until we accept an hypothesis 
equally as sound as this one in dealing with ques¬ 
tions of first importance, we will have refused to 
be logical, and fail in our research. 

As an instance: Were some Noah to be dis¬ 
covered building a great “ark” in anticipation of 
a world-enveloping flood, in which to save a repre¬ 
sentative of the race, and of the animal kingdom, 
he would be laughed at, as the Noah of tradi¬ 
tional age is said to have been. We are today 
forced to choose between the belief that the event 
that caused the division of the antediluvial and 
the diluvial periods known to geology, were the re¬ 
sult of this flood or deluge, with Noah as its cen- 


11 


tral figure, which God, in his anger with man, on 
account of his sinfulness and disobedience, brought 
upon the earth for the purpose of destroying him 
off its face, and who on account of one man having 
found favor in his sight, he told him of his re¬ 
vengeful intent, and how to save himself, his wife 
and children, and pairs of the animal kingdom; 
or we must accept the alternative theory, viz., 
that the earth at intervals repolarizes itself and 
that the representatives of the race and of the 
animal kingdom, escape death and extinction only 
by chance of circumstances, as there is no other 
cause advanced as a reason. 

We make this latter theory the basis of the 
explanation of the submerging of the earth that 
the science of geology establishes as having oc¬ 
curred, and whereby they establish that the earth, 
or at least a large part of it, has been submerged 
—and maintain that all of the conditions are ful¬ 
filled in one, or both of the two resultant condi¬ 
tions:— (1) That the flood was a world-wide tidal 
wave, the whole of the waters of all the seas being 
disturbed by their point of gravity having been 
suddenly moved, and that they would be awash 
back and forth across the earth, as the heavy part 
of the earth rushed to find its equilibrium, and 
oscillated back and forth as its momentum car¬ 
ried it past the center of motion, only to be again 
drawn back to its true point of equilibrium, there¬ 
by submerging the whole earth by the recurring 
tidal waves, and (2) that that part of the earth 
which indicates disturbance of this character at 


12 


this period, or of having been submerged, was 
formerly the bed of the ocean, which, on account 
of the change of the point of gravity of the waters 
of the ocean, had, when the earth repolarized it¬ 
self, in part become dry land. 

Even the present is the blessed estate of “the 
intellectual culture of mediocrity” and of optim¬ 
ism : then will no one have the temerity to voice 
the choice of the former explanation,—even though 
no scientist has ever questioned its truth,—for very 
fear of his own fear of transcending tradition, and 
thereby destroying his own optimism. We now 
have an alternative, and are forced to make a 
choice or own to ourselves our cowardice, and 
tremble with the fear that our cowardice has been 
discovered. 

If the former is the reason, then mankind may 
at any moment, without warning, be revisited by 
the “repentant wrath” of his creator, and the 
“Bow of Promise” be withdrawn, and the earth 
be again submerged with or without an “ark of 
safety” having been provided for animal kind. 

There will be no optimist choose the latter as 
it destroys optimism, so he will perforce remain 
true to his false position, true to his covert fear, 
true to the hope of his immortality. Only honest 
men who can take their courage in both hands 
will accept this alternative, knowing full well that 
if this is the explanation of this phenomneon, that 
the resulting chaos and destruction attending its 
certain recurrence, and the terror and suffering 
will be beyond description: that the pain will be 


13 


even less to those who lose their lives in the re¬ 
adjustment than to those who survive its horrors. 
Yet those who have courage will accept the truth. 

Scientists for many years have observed and 
demonstrated the proofs of the existence of what 
they term the “Ice Age.” 

It is true, if we believe that the earth was 
called into existence by a divine decree, as set out 
in the first chapter of Genesis, that any other un¬ 
accountable condition might have been ordained. 
But if we accept the nebulae hypothesis, the only 
other alternative of the earth’s beginning, we may 
not only in a rational way account for the “Ice 
Age,” but also for its cessation. 

The fundamental contention of the correctness 
of the nebulae hypothesis is that the earth is a 
constantly cooling mass, so that at earlier periods 
the earth would have been warmer than at the 
time at which the scientist tells us the “Ice Age” 
occurred. This would make it impossible for gla¬ 
cial ice to have formed then, as now, in a tem¬ 
perate zone where its evidences exist. We are 
thus forced to accept the earlier and illogical be¬ 
lief of the earth’s beginning, and continue to specu¬ 
late as to the origin of the ice that made the “Ice 
Age,” or we are compelled to the acceptance of the 
belief that the earth does repolarize itself, and 
brings its poles with their great burden of ice and 
snow the accumulation of centuries, to what is 
now the centre of motion, where in time it gives 
way to the heat of a tropical sun, leaving man to 
ponder as he observes its evidences. 


14 


Man, in the early ages of the recurring periods, 
must have realized that when his ancestors and 
the populous cities they had built, and the works 
of art they had conceived were all ruthlessly 
forced out of the temperate zone by this cruel 
intrusion what the sufferings of those who sur¬ 
vived this terrible transition must have been, as 
they again faced life as the progenitors of the 
race under the changed conditions, compelled to 
endure the rigors of a cold and inhospitable re¬ 
gion in arctic latitudes to which they, and their 
former comfortable place of abode in a temperate 
zone had been transferred, or if they sought to 
emigrate to what would otherwise be a temperate 
zone, they would be compelled to survive the melt¬ 
ing away of the mountains of polar ice that cov¬ 
ered the frozen earth at the tropics, confronted as 
they were with the knowledge of what had oc¬ 
curred, and realizing that if the race struggled 
back to the dawn of a new day, that it would be 
but again to sustain destruction with the next re¬ 
curring period. Must they not have been forced 
to the conclusion that man had no place in divine 
consideration ? 

Indomitable indeed, must have been the spirit 
that was unbroken. One could not but believe 
that to the survivor of such a cataclysm exist¬ 
ence was impossible; that its difficulties were in¬ 
surmountable, and that as they reviewed their 
situation it must have been without hope. Sur¬ 
rounded by the ice and cold of winter on every 
hand they must have realized that the planet they 


15 


had been taught to believe God held in the hollow 
of his hand, and that he would save from harm, 
was indeed a land of desolation, and was void; 
“that judgment was without justice, and that 
mercy did not temper the verdict; but that only 
the rules of life, that continuing force that de¬ 
sires itself’’ prevailed. 

This is the only theory that will logically ac¬ 
count for the “Miocene” or “Pleiocene” division 
of the Tertiary period, the Antediluvial or Di¬ 
luvial epochs, the only theory that will account 
for the coal deposits, even in a temperate zone, 
the great forests of a former age being in places 
piled together by a glacial catapult, that at the 
same time covered them deep with its debris, 
thereby providing the means for their oxidation, 
or by gathering them, and then covering them 
with mountains that had opposed its irresistible 
force, or by a world-wide tidal wave, caused by 
the earth having withdrawn their former points 
of gravity from the waters of the oceans, leaving 
them awash (back and forth) over its disturbed 
surface, their great volume uncontrolled and forc¬ 
ible, seeking a new shore to resist and restrain 
them in their destructive fury; all resulting from 
this unusual, but natural disturbances of Nature’s 
forces. 

With the conviction borne home with this ter¬ 
rible certainty that the earth has repolarized it¬ 
self in the past, and that all the conditions arc 
favorable for a recurrence, and that the condition 
has progressed so far that it has been taken note 


16 


of—however, without intelligent application having 
been made as to the ultimate result—yet the people 
of the world will stand with apathetic unconcern 
until they realize why Sir Ernest Shackleton may 
have outfitted his expedition to the South Pole, 
that has already been discovered, that is known 
to be uninhabitable, that is without strategic im¬ 
portance, and for what? He says in his statement 
his purpose is to cross the Antarctic Continent at 
its widest point, and to take observations of the 
“dip” of the pole. But when he returns and tells 
them—as he should do—and as I am telling you 
now, that the earth must—on account of continu¬ 
ally adding weight at this Pole, which thereby 
causes the increasing dip of the Poles—obey the 
law of inert rotating bodies, and its poles turn 
with their burden of ice and snow to the centre 
of motion—the equator—then what will they do? 

Since we have a new valuation, a new epoch 
is established; fear of the condition will not avail, 
cowardice will have no reward, procrastination 
will mock its author, the Superman and the De¬ 
generate alike will be at the mercy of the natu¬ 
rally disturbed forces of Nature. 

When Shackleton returns he should tell us, as 
Captain Scott but for his death would have, of 
the geological proofs of the repolarization of the 
earth. He should tell us of the increasing “dip” 
or oscillation of the poles, which must carry con¬ 
viction home that this earth of ours is an unstable 
dwelling place, and until then we may not know 
when the “rocks and mountains”—without having 


17 


been cried to—“will fall upon us. H This should 
be the reason for Shackleton’s expedition to the 
Antarctic, and by this even belated investigation 
of these problems—large in their interest—the sci¬ 
entist will no longer dare to evade. We will have 
made progress. Humanity will no longer be de¬ 
luded by sophistry and fear, and an answer will 
be demanded. The false prohpets and their false 
gods can no longer beguile and the slave will no 
longer be our master. 

If Austria and Germany were to build one 
Dreadnought more in a year than England or 
Russia did, or were America to make a new com¬ 
mercial departure and declare it her policy to 
become mistress of the seas, not alone w^duld the 
people of London, or of the British Isles be 
stricken with terror, but the whole world w r ould 
know r and fear the impact. They would know that 
the suffering in consequence would be beyond de¬ 
scription, that the loss of life would be numbered 
in millions. Fear and consternation would take 
hold of them. It would be the nearness, rather 
than the certainty of the catastrophy, that would 
cause them to tremble. 

Man, both strong and weak, in all ages, has 
been controlled through fear. He fears most the 
things that threaten him in the present or near 
future, the things that will hurt him personally. 
He fears annihilation or torture. This is why he 
has been controlled by religion which has always 
carried as a distinct adjunct to its other attributes 
the compelling force of punishment, of unending 


18 


torture. The author of the Book of Revelations, 
in a vision saw the earth destroyed. He saw a 
mighty angel stand in tragic attitude, and in a 
loud voice “swear that time should be no more,” 
thus issuing a divine decree for the peremptory 
closing up of this unsatisfactory venture of cre¬ 
ation. There were curses and loud assurances of 
unending torture pronounced for those who had 
incurred the divine displeasure, with blessings and 
promises of pleasure for those who had believed 
in his might to destroy, and power to save. 

The end of the world has often been foretold 
by those w r ho have claimed to be endowed with 
the gift of prophecy: their followers are num¬ 
bered by the thousands: their teachings have been 
believed in by the devout, and are an essential 
part of the Holy Writ. 

There can be no comparison drawn between 
the destruction by mandate of the world as por¬ 
trayed in the vision of St. John, or the cynical 
teachings of prophets, and the hard logic that we 
have dealt with in arriving at the conclusion that 
the earth has, and will again repolarize itself, in 
obedience to the laws of Nature. We paint as 
pessimistic and gloomy a picture, and filled with 
as deep and incurable woes. For those who sur¬ 
vive its inevitable horrors, we have nought but 
the assurance of barbaric conditions of existence. 
To none is there held out the God-like figures of 
even a distant hope of bliss or transport; not even 
to those who perish in the impact is there satis¬ 
fied a craving for mercy through which they might 


19 


hope for an eternity of bliss, at last seen to be 
illusory; there will be no tears wiped away and 
no songs of triumph. It makes of our earth with 
its forgotten civilizations, its religions full of tran- 
quilizing promises, its gods with their boasted 
power to “save through eternity them that serve 
him”; its philosophies of the past, its prophets 
and seers of visions, a plaything, as so far as our 
knowledge goes, our destiny is in the hands of a 
power with which, as yet, we have never reckoned. 

Even though we look with dread upon the ter¬ 
rors and hopelessness of this new epoch in our 
history and destiny, we cannot evade the inevi¬ 
table, and should face our destiny. For those who 
can, it is better to do this than to suffer the tor¬ 
tures of fear that the coward will, who can now 
adhere to the old untenable beliefs of the miracles 
of creation, an earth flattened at its poles, or ex¬ 
pect that the continuity of the law of Nature will 
be suspended where need be, to allow our vanity 
and fear to express themselves in terms of belief 
in our own weakness, and that as a miracle of 
mercy, this danger will pass, and leave us un¬ 
harmed. 


20 


“THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE.” 


Do you agree to the rule of logic; agree that a 
given thing either “is, or is not”; i. e., “is either 
true, or is not true?” 

Do you believe that the earth was created as 
set out in the first chapter of Genesis, or in the 
theory of the Nebulae Hypothesis of the creation 
of the universe? 

Do you believe that man was created as de¬ 
scribed in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, 
or in the generic theory of the beginning of the 
race, and of the evolution of animal life? 

Do you believe that the geological periods are 
the result of a divine decree, or that the poles of 
the earth have shifted; i. e., that the earth has 
frequently repolarized itself, causing the divisions 
of the periods known to geology, in a natural way? 

Do you believe that the terms good and evil 
describe absolute or relative conditions, created by 
divine decree, or that it is a trick that has been 
put over, and that there should be a re-valuation 
which would accord with Nature’s requirements? 

Do you believe that all men are, can be, or by 
right should be thought to be, equal, or do you 
believe in the efficiency of the law of the survival 
of the fit? 

Do you believe that a man is his brother’s 
keeper, or that might makes right? 


21 



Do you believe in evolution, in progress, or 
retrogression, or in a fixed status of things? 

Do you believe in the continuity of matter? 

Do you believe in the continuity of energy? 

Do you believe that either heaven or hell are 
places, or that they are mythological creations? 

But let me here suggest that no matter what 
your answer to these and many other questions 
may be, that if you once commit yourself to a be¬ 
lief in the Nebulae Hypothesis of the creation of 
the universe; the evolutionary theory of life, or 
admit that the earth has, or may again repolarize 
itself: that unless you continue to be logical, and 
accept the logic of a courageous pessimism, and 
aver that Nietzsche’s superman, and the degen¬ 
erate of the Christian belief alike will be crushed 
along with the arts of civilization, when the earth 
again, in obedience to the laws which govern the 
universe, repolarizes itself, what are you going to 
claim will be the result of this recurring catas¬ 
trophe ? 

The geologist finds that from its beginning the 
existence of animal life on this planet has been 
continuous; he furnishes the proofs from his re¬ 
searches that it has been progressive, that it has 
had distinct periods, and yet because it destroys 
his hope, his veneration and his vanity, and be¬ 
cause the adoption of a theory as devastating in 
its character as that of the repolarization of the 
earth would be; would call forth such universal 
protest from those who advocate the now accepted 
theories of peaceful existence, he—as the optimist 


22 


and the Christian—refuses to give credence to the 
only logical solution of the heretofore unsolved 
problems. 

He well knows that the bones and skeletons of 
the animal kingdom, as well as all fossilized re¬ 
mains of the species of the past are not found in 
volcanic matter, nor are they imbedded as a result 
of an earthquake. He knows that the specimens 
of the Moicene period in our great museums are 
not the bones of man, buried in order by his fellow 
man, he knows that the glacier did not come down 
from the poles; yet he steadfastly refuses to com¬ 
mit himself to a theory that would be unpopular 
because of its far-reaching, revolutionary and de¬ 
structive character. 

The scientist, like the optimist, would sooner 
bask in the smiles of those who know, that he 
knows, that he is a coward, as they themselves 
are, but reciprocate each in their deception of the 
other, and (as the optimist) fear progress. 

In the face of proof, science does not accept, 
religion denies, and the optimist collects straws 
with which to construct a raft of safety; likewise, 
we too, are expected to deny ourselves the liberty 
of free thought, or the right of a new valuation, 
and to submit to be called pessimists as the con¬ 
clusion of an argument, or as a term of derision 
and contempt. It is their only argument, a weapon 
wdth which they seek to compel us to remain stead¬ 
fast in our place, our eyes on the past, while they, 
the weaklings of earth, triumphantly glorify the 
power of optimism to deceive. 


23 


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